Thea Jones — 2008 Outstanding Leader of the Year
Thea Jones, supervisor of the Office of Instructional Technology in the Baltimore County Public Schools, has worked tirelessly to ensure that all students are provided with the best educational experiences possible through the effective use of technology in the instructional program. She believes that it is criticall
important to work collaboratively with others to ensure that our students enter the world beyond high school with the 21st century skills that are needed to be productive citizens in a global society. She also believes that vision, long-term planning, and effective short term implementation strategies are critical to successful technology use in our schools. Below, you will see that Ms. Jones’ beliefs are congruent with her work as a technology leader and she is very deserving of this award.
Under Thea’s leadership a multi-faceted office was established in the Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) to provide leadership in technology integration to improve student achievement and teacher productivity; to provide leadership to schools and offices in the implementation of e-Learning initiatives including online student courses and online teacher professional development; to provide BCPS staff with professional development opportunities in technology integration that support research-based instructional practices; and to facilitate theInstructional Software and Web-based Resources Evaluation Process to identify software and web based resources that best meet instructional goals.
Ms. Jones strongly believes that the successful use of technology requires that technology be embedded into the written curriculum, school administrators must take a proactive role in promoting the use of technology, and that teachers must be able to use technology seamlessly in the delivery of instruction.
An important aspect of Ms. Jones’ commitment to furthering effective professional practice has been her work, over the past five years, with Dr. Ron Thomas of Towson University in the development and implementation of an evaluation tool to assess the progress that has been made in the integration of technology in BCPS. Based upon administrator and teacher surveys and interviews, evidence shows that technology integration began slowly and has picked up momentum in the past two years. Research results will be presented at MICCA ’08, the statewide educational technology conference for Maryland educators to be held in late spring.
Ms. Jones has been an active leader in MICCA and served as president, vice-president, and conference chairperson. She created the MICCA grants program and continues to serve as the chairperson of the committee. This program provides grants of up to $700 to Maryland educators. Since the inception of the program more than $180,000 has been awarded to teachers who are seeking to incorporate innovative uses of technology into instructional practice. As a member of ISTE, Ms. Jones has attended national lobbying events and visited members of Congress to lobby for national technology funding.In addition, she has supported the attendance of teachers and administrators at state and national conferences and other technology-related professional development activities.
Ms. Jones does an outstanding job of articulating the vision for technology integration that incorporates pedagogy, content expertise, and technology competency in instruction that supports student achievement .
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